Description:

JAMES CALDWELL
(1734-1781) American Presbyterian chaplain, the "Fighting Parson of the Revolution", he urged the Presbyterian Church to support the rebellion in 1775 and drummed up a militia, fought in the Battle of Springfield and was killed in Elizabethtown, N.J. when he refused to allow a package to be inspected. Uncommon A.L.S. 1p. 4to., Albany, June 14, 1776, to his wife, in part: "...I have nothing new to write ...Tomorrow I leave this with the remainder of our Baggage with Instructions for our Battalion. We are to be imployed up the Mohawk River...a Scene as agreeable as war can be...I hope my Divine Blessing very useful. I send you a Pattern for a Gown, which I met with yesterday, & which is...a very great beauty...Bless the dear Children & give love to all friends...". Caldwell would stay with his brigade until September 1776, when he returned home to Fort Washington; however his stay was shortened by the city's fall to the British and the subsequent evacuation and destruction of the city. The year 1780 would prove to be equally sad: a night raid by the British burnt his church to the ground. Caldwell attempted to move his family after Cornwallis' invasion, however his wife Hannah Ogden Caldwell did not want to travel with their youngest children. She would be murdered by a Hessian soldier during a march, her home ransacked and burnt. Loosely set into a mat with portrait and ready to frame. Light and inconspicuous repairs to verso, otherwise very good condition.

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May 9, 2012 11:00 AM EDT
Stamford, CT, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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